Referendum renders Juniata County School District unable to fund sports, extracurriculars

Chris Knight, The Patriot-NewsJuniata High School athletes, such as wrestler Arty Walsh (seen here in a photo from the 2010 District 3 tournament) could find themselves without sports teams to play for if the Juniata County School District can't find another way to close a $3.4 million budget deficit.

Wednesday dawned rainy and grim in Juniata County.

Going into Tuesday’s voter referendum, the Juniata County School District knew that if voters did not agree to raise property taxes to make up for a $3.4 million budget deficit, the district would have no choice but to eliminate a long and varied list of programs ranging from kindergarten to vocational agriculture, and athletics from the 2011-12 budget cycle.

The proposed tax hike failed dramatically, with 81.75 percent voting against the measure. That translates to 6,039 ‘no’ votes, and only 1,349 “yes” votes.

The result?

“It’s a pretty sad day in Juniata County right now,” said Rod Hart, athletic director of East Juniata High School.

The “no” vote means the district now officially has no money for extracurriculars such as arts, band and athletics.

But the ramifications of the crisis are so far-reaching that Hart said the issue of how to save sports will probably be put on the backburner for a couple of days, until the dust has settled.

“From what I understand, a lot of people got handed pink slips this morning,” Hart said, emphasizing that athletics is only a very small component of what has been lost as a result of the referendum. “I just got an e-mail this morning [from the district] asking me to try and figure out a way to include art in my math classes.

“The whole situation is just absurd.”

Band was one of the programs affected by the "no" vote in response to the issue of raising property taxes in the May 17 Juniata County referendum. The referendum's failure could spell the end of vocational programs, kindergarten and athletics in the district.

Hart, and his counterpart at Juniata High School, Jerry Aukers, are understandably disappointed with the result of the referendum.

As Hart points out, taxes in Juniata County have traditionally been so low that “even if the referendum had passed and taxes had gone up $250, in every district surrounding us, their taxes are still 20 to 30 percent higher than ours.”

Aukers is not surprised that the referendum to raise taxes did not pass, but he is surprised at the margin by which it failed.

As it stands, the two athletic directors are in a holding pattern. Aukers said they might get some direction at the next school board meeting, scheduled for Thursday night.

Hart said he hopes to eventually hold a meeting with school board members and the administration to discuss ways to preserve the existence of sports in the district.

Hart already has some ideas that would help raise money. “Co-oping,” or, having two school merge their sports teams, is a possibility, as is charging admission for events that currently do not require admission fees.

Aukers said he’s looked into some forms of corporate sponsorship and selling advertising, but that it’s still very preliminary. Another option would be to introduce an activity fee.

“But it would be very expensive to cover the whole cost of sports through pay-to-play alone,” Aukers said. “It’s probably more than anyone would be willing to pay. Now, if it’s combined with another method, that could work.”

Hart said he’s had a handful of varsity coaches come up to him and volunteer to coach for free, and that could be a big help in the short run.

“There are some [athletics] programs that could essentially survive on their own. I’ve talked to three to four coaches who’ve said they would coach for nothing, and if you consider admission tickets, and booster help, there are programs that could exist on their own,” Hart said.

“But it’s not ideal and it would take a coordinated effort, and we’d have to stay within Title IX rules.”

If the Juniata County School District does lose its sports programs, it could potentially lose students.

“I’ve been approached by a number of parents already talking about their kid going to live with grandma or an aunt and uncle in another district,” Hart said. “If this persists, we could start losing kids. It’s started already.”

This could pose a problem because PIAA transfer rules do not allow kids to switch schools for athletically motivated purposes. However, in an interview with The Patriot-News earlier this month, PIAA executive director Brad Cashman indicated that the organization could look into granting an exemption if they were faced with the case of a school eliminating sports completely.

Cashman said a school or a school district would have to officially petition the PIAA to create an exception.

Hart and Aukers think it’s too early to start worrying about transfers yet, but Hart indicated that he would be willing to petition the PIAA on his students’ behalf if the district finds itself with no athletics program.

Related Stories

Featured Story

Get 'Today's Front Page' in your inbox

This newsletter is sent every morning at 6 a.m. and includes the morning's top stories, a full list of obituaries, links to comics and puzzles and the most recent news, sports and entertainment headlines.

optionalCheck here if you do not want to receive additional email offers and information.See our privacy policy

Thank you for signing up for 'Today's Front Page'

To view and subscribe to any of our other newsletters, please click here.